Boys vs. Girls 2 (graphic novel)
Boys vs. Girls 2 (graphic novel) is the graphic novelization of the official sequel to the ''Boys vs. Girls'' trilogy, preceding the graphic novelization of . It was written by D. Isaac Thomas and co-written by Melissa Vaine. The novel was released in May of 2018. Plot The Second School War is already in progress. Natalia Thornton is tightening her grip on the world and has destroyed the Empire State Building after capturing Joshua Petersen. Andrew meets up with his friends, Steven Thompson and Charlie Corner, and they take off in the van of Supreme Commander Helen McKeen The Cavaliers of Thornton track Steven to the house, and Liv Emerson pilots the Corrupter and launches an airstrike hoping to kill Petersen. McKeen hurls fire at her and the Heartbreaker takes flight to Thompson's house. There, Summer finally makes out with Steven, but she is disturbed to see several frightening visions and wakes with a start. She reveals to Thompson, who has just come to wake her and McKeen, that Joshua is in captivity, that Thornton knows of the ambush the Boy-Team is planning, and that McKeen and Thornton are siblings. During their outing, a Boy-Team member named Zachary Brown arrives to warn everyone in the waterpark that the Cavaliers of Thornton are coming. Once at supposed location of the secret doorway, the quintet desperately searches for a way past the field, but are unable to find it. Petersen refuses to give up and finds it. Thompson becomes angry with her, but McKeen ends the argument and Thompson apologizes and they briefly simulate each other for comfort. In the process, they are nearly killed by Charlie Corner, who reveals he is actually a double agent, but Petersen destroys the ''Demonizer'' and throws him down the stairs and he is forced to flee. Summer flees with Jay, but then she is hit in the head by a piece of rubble. In the meantime, Cera Lewis arrives in her shuttle in a docking bay and Steven, having already surrendered to the Cavaliers, talks with Cera in an attempt to bring her away from evil, but to no avail. The Cavaliers take Thompson into custody for transportation to Natalia's headquarters. Inside, Steven confronts Natalia, who tries to turn him to the dark side. Thompson and Thornton begin to duel, but then Thornton realizes her computer system has been destroyed and renews her assault. Thompson wins, but he hesitates to kill her. Confused, he finally does, or at least, he thinks he does. He immediately resolves to return to Tower Placement to spread the news. In the meantime, Anakin Organa is fighting off Cavalier forces when Summer and Jay rush to him with a warning: Empress Zira Miranda Grover is sending her armies to reinforce the school. After failing to convince Zira to call off the attack, Summer realizes that President Waterston has sent her own armada to stop Zira. They quickly decimate the Cavalier army. Summer is still watching from inside the top floor when Steven Thompson approaches her from in the shadows. Petersen is overjoyed to see him alive and well, and he immediately apologizes for leaving her behind. Summer firmly grabs him and pulls him into a warm embrace, but then she realizes he's confused, conflicted, and upset. When Steven breaks away, he reveals his remorse over his encounter with Natalia Thornton, who has reportedly been destroyed. During the years that follow, Steven and Summer become boyfriend and girlfriend. However, during this time, they realize Helen is still captured. Summer contacts Anakin and the two rendezvous at the back of a gas station. There, they devise a plan to rescue Helen from the palace of Zira Miranda Grover. Before going, Summer invites Steven to her house and tells him what she is planning to do. He is extremely reluctant to let her do this without him, but they come to a compromise that consists of Steven leading the Boy-Team fleet into a small war if Anakin gives the word, but if he doesn't, Steven will not interfere. Meanwhile, Anakin Organa and his team have arrived in Arizona in an attempt to rescue Helen McKeen from the palace of Zira Miranda Grover. First Anakin uses a Jedi mind trick to force a guard named Taylor Carter into the palace with his message. The message pleads Zira to release Helen. Zira refuses. That evening, Zira's band entertains the Empress. Zira, engaged by the graceful gyrations of her collared slave Thomas, starts tugging on his chain and commanding him to come to her on her throne. Thomas fearfully resists her, and in annoyance, Zira has her guards kill Thomas. Later, Summer Petersen ambushes Xydarone V and knocks her unconscious, before donning her clothes. From there, she convinces Zira to show her where Xydarone's room is. That night, Summer releases Helen McKeen, but as they prepare to escape, they are caught by Zira and her minions. Zira has Helen thrown in prison with GTR-10 while Summer is appointed as Zira's future successor. Later on, Anakin arrives at the palace. Zira, and most of her minions are asleep, but are awoken by Jim Newman (who, in trying to intervene the Jedi's entrance, is Force-tricked into welcoming him). Summer, now accustomed to Zira's ways, remains silent beside the Empress while Anakin demands that Zira release Helen and his other friends, but Zira refuses the young Jedi's offer. Anakin uses the Force to pull a nearby electric bomb and attempts to use it, but the Empress throws the Jedi into the Death Pit. After a huge battle with the Beast, it is inadvertently killed by a manager named Wes Bomee. Anakin is then recaptured and brought up by Zira's minions. Zira, furious, chokes Summer until she falls back on her belly, and orders the prisoners to be brought before her. As Zira sentences Anakin and his friends to be taken to the Cave of the Gargoyle for termination by the man-eating gargoyle, knowing its built-in technology would crush them over the course of ten millennia, Wes Bomee is summoned by her to a special room, escorted by guards. In the room is a dagger. Wes realizes too late what is meant to happen to him, and the doors lock behind him, leaving him no way to escape. En route, the royal band plays music in the background. Zira allows Summer to climb off her throne and watch her friends from a window; after a while, she gives a tug on her chain, playfully commanding her to come to her. Summer glares back at her, but as the chain is slack, she returns to watching, and Zira chuckles. Jim Newman, seeing this, joins her on her throne. Outside, Anakin and his companions are being taken to the Cave of the Gargoyle on one of the vans accompanying the Gemotre. Helen is sure that they are all going to die, and Anakin whispers something in her ear. When the vehicles ultimately reach the cave, Zira announces the group's deaths, but after Anakin gets ushered into the gargoyle's mouth, the Boy-Team fleet bursts out of nowhere following a threat from Luke Norris. In response, Anakin climbs right out of Devorar, landing and grabbing his laser sword from Helen. Anakin then begins to kill his captors as a massive sky battle erupts as the Cavaliers of Thornton burst out of nowhere. As Xydarone IV attacks Anakin, Helen, and GTR-10, Valiera Nelson's fighter is crippled and she swears she will find Charles. Summer watches Xydarone's head fall into Devorar's maw. Having lured Zira into a false sense of security, Summer quickly seduces the Empress into let down the throne's shield and proceeds to smite her head with her spear. As Zira falls to the ground, Summer decides to eat what's left in Zira's candy goblet, but then Jim Newman converges, only for someone to smash apart his glass window and cut down the guards flanking him, so Jim runs away cursing as Anakin uses the Force to give her her laser sword. The guard identifies himself as Justin Bellamy and they head for the stairs to the roof of the limo. However, they run into Marina, but a dancer named Robert Mersames knocks her out. Meanwhile, Sammy Salaraga attacks the fallen GTR-10, and Summer chases the court jester away. Reaching the surface, and the unlikely trio runs to find an aircraft to fight aerial. Anakin defeats the remaining guards on the limousine's roof, and Cassie and Kayliah, two of the Cavaliers, agree to fly with Summer since they regretted joining Emily Watson so long ago and could finally make up for it. At that moment, however, Charlie Corner, who has been leading the ground forces, flies into battle against Summer on his hovercraft. In the meantime, Natalia bests Helen and throws her to the ground. Cassie lunges at Charlie, who falls out of his hovercraft and to his death. Helen convinces Natalia that anything she attempts to improve the world by wiping out those who oppose her, will cause far more pain and suffering than it will ever prevent, and Summer, who has landed while Kayliah is being tended by Cassie, that it is okay for the people to do as they see fit, as everyone has their own kind of magic inside them. Moved by Helen and Summer's speech and touched by being considered magical by the sister she believed hated her, Natalia orders all her Cavaliers to retreat, as Zira is already dead. With Zira defeated, Summer gives Steven an “attack hug” and they celebrate with their friends until President Waterston arrives and speaks with her and Steven privately, congratulating them for their victory but discouraging them from doing anything similar in the future, citing that she, the President, is in their debt. A moment later, the Gemotre explodes behind them. Steven and Summer hold hands and the scene transitions into the graduation party Steven is throwing six months after the battle. Steven tells Summer the guests will be arriving soon. They and their friends make all they can out of the event. Feeling quite at home, Summer sits on a couch, joking with her friends. One of them expresses their confidence that she'll become a legend in politics thanks to being so computer-smart, something Summer doubts, and when they all begin arguing about politics, Summer leaves and encounters Tage Elwood, who thinks she looks stunning but is too shy to mention it, Summer jokes that her art skills matter more than her physical beauty, but laughing hurts her already aching stomach. Tage eases the pain by kneading her stomach, making her feel better, and she takes off her shirt beforehand. Deciding to keep wearing nothing but her fancy bra because Steven always keeps the heat up too high, she wanders over and plays with two boys, before watching Steven pose by a slide for a photo. Later on, she watches a ring fight between several partygoers that Helen wins. As the hour grows late, the party reduces to everyone hanging out inside, either dozing off or mingling quietly. Summer sits at a table in her bra, playing on her phone until Steven shows up and asks her to watch the house and in return lets her have all the cake she wants. Unfortunately, Zachary Brown shows up and hits on her until she beats him up and he leaves. When Steven goes downstairs next morning, he sees Summer "organizing" the refrigerator. Summer tells him about Zach and offers to help clean up after what she considers the best event of her life. Going outside, they get to work until Steven goes over and commends her work on the table before offering to help her up. He nervously makes an imminent proposal of marriage. Summer grins. In the first Post-Script, Summer Petersen speaks as an adult, more than fifteen years later. It is indicated that she is married to Steven Thompson. They have a child together, a boy named Tyson Jay Petersen. The war is over, but she dreads the day her children's innocent world will be shattered by learning the details of their parents' involvement in the war. She calls Helen, who is revealed to be married to Andrew Hendersen, before heading inside to watch Steven play football for the United States. She knows everything will work out. Josh Hogan films a public service announcement on the importance of patience and breaks the fourth wall, informing the reader that they read the second post-script for nothing. Differences between the novel and the comic book *As the scene with Helen and Roxanne is not featured in the comic book, after the kidnapping is shown, the comic cuts right to Andrew navigating the woods. *The comic never mentions how Andrew came to be. *Roxanne's meeting with Barack Obama is omitted. *Several (ultimately canonical) scenes depict Cavaliers assaulting Boy-Team members prior to Summer and Jay arriving at the school. Andrew pushes a Cavalier off a bridge. *The book omits the scarring of Steven Thompson. *Summer's confrontation with Vorme is omitted. *Taylor Carter's ploy for revenge against Summer is also omitted. Character omissions *B-490 *Vorme Rating Like its predecessors, Boys vs. Girls 2 is rated PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned). The book is rated "intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language". The first two make sense as Petersen is seen wearing a bra twice, just like Zira and Claire, and there is a fair deal of gunplay, swordplay, and a few gruesome deaths. However, there are actually very few swear words, "s--t" is spoken once and "damn" is spoken twice, which isn't unusual in newer D.I.T. books and nevertheless merits a PG-13 rating. Notes and references C4